Brussels showdown over Merkel and Sarkozy plans to eliminate national sovereignty

[Editor’s Note: The push underway in Brussels by Bilderbergs Merkel and Sarkozy to change the Lisbon treaty to allow for the establishment of a permanent mechanism to extract money from EU member countries in debt (through fraud – see Hypo Alpe Adria case), as well as for the suspension of a country’s voting rights if it does not reduce national debt by the amount ordered will eliminate what is left of national sovereignty for eurozone countries.To accept these changes is tantamount to surrending a country’s control over its financial policies as well as its government to an unelected EU totalitarian state. The Irish Constitution will require a referendum for such a change.]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have ruffled feathers ahead of this week’s EU summit by hashing out a deal on their plans for reforming the Stability Pact. The proposal to remove voting rights has met with fierce opposition across Europe — the stage is set for open confrontation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has raised the stakes ahead of this week’s European Union summit. She and French President Nicolas Sarkozy want countries that break the strict budget deficit rules to be punished by having their voting rights suspended. However, this would require a change to the Lisbon Treaty — something that has met with fierce resistance within the 27-member bloc. The stage is set for confrontation this Thursday in Brussels and it is far from clear if Merkel and Sarkozy will prevail.

Despite all of the diplomatic efforts ahead of the two-day summit, the other EU leaders have not yet agreed to the plan presented by Berlin and Paris. Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker came out firmly against the Franco-German plan on Wednesday. He said that the EU already had a mechanism for withdrawing voting rights in another area: “That is the case, when a country violates human rights,” Juncker told the German broadcaster ZDF. “Human rights violations and violations of budget rules are two very different things.”

Martin Schulz, a member of Germany’s center-left Social Democrats and head of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, expects the chancellor to fail to push through her agenda at the summit. “Merkel has simply not reflected enough,” he told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. “I doubt that countries like Germany and France would subject themselves to such a suspension of voting rights it they had high deficits,” he said.

On Wednesday Merkel defended the pact that she made with Sarkozy ahead of the summit in a speech to the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. That so-called “Deuville Deal” included plans to make bond holders, such as banks and hedge funds, share some of the costs of risky lending by sharing responsibility for coming to the rescue of EU states on the brink of insolvency. Another issue is whether states that break the deficit rules are automatically punished by the European Commission, the EU’s executive, or whether the agreement of the European Council of ministers would be required.

Germany has yielded to France’s desire for more leniency on this issue in exchange for Paris backing its plans for a permanent crisis resolution mechanism. An emergency safety net was established to come to the rescue of Greece and other floundering EU member states, but this runs out in 2013. Merkel has come under public pressure back home not to simply extend the fund, to which Germany is the largest contributor, with taxpayers balking at having to pay to cover the excesses of less fiscally prudent nations.

‘No Mutiny’

Although Juncker rejects some of the proposals from Berlin and Paris, he agrees with Merkel’s suggestion that the Lisbon Treaty needs to be altered to include a permanent crisis mechanism. “I am of the opinion that we have to consider a small change to the treaty in order to achieve that. There is no fundamental dissent on that,” Juncker said.

Manfred Weber, deputy floor leader of the European People’s Party, the conservative Christian Democratic group in the European Parliament, backs Merkel’s proposal to have private creditors involved in the rescue packages. Weber, a member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that the priority, however, is making sure that states do not face insolvency in the first place. He said that the Deauville Deal had given the impression that German had retreated “on the issue of how the euro can be kept stable.” Weber wants to see the EU executive given greater powers. “In order to ensure budget discipline in the EU member states we need a strong European Commission, one that can automatically impose sanctions without any political influence.”

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has pronounced himself optimistic that the strengthening of the EU Stability Pact can be achieved. “Following numerous discussions with my European counterparts I am certain that we can reach a solution that will strengthen Europe, protect the euro and do justice to the legitimate interests of the taxpayers,” he told the Bild newspaper. “We need tough rules which ensure that in future the imposition of sanctions is as devoid of political influence as possible.”

As for the criticism of the calls from France and Germany for a change to the Lisbon Treaty, Westerwelle said that there was no “mutiny” within the EU, because “France and Germany are not the captains of Europe, but rather part of a community of states on equal terms.”

smd — with wire reports

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3 Responses to Brussels showdown over Merkel and Sarkozy plans to eliminate national sovereignty

I strongly encourage the Peoples of the World to watch William Black’s presentation on the dailybail.com on what to do with the American banks and the officials who let them get away with the massive fraud that they have set in motion. He believes that a huge number of the officials involved (including Holder in the Dept. of Injustice, Bernanke etc.) should be fired and then jailed. The big banks should be broken up as they are “not too big to fail,” according to Black, they are too big for our national stability.

HOW to get them fired? We are part of a huge system which operates on influence.
No matter how high the atrocity committed against them, the mass of people are left the laughable option of taking to the streets to ‘protest’ and risk being permanently injured by the riot police (who they employ).

The right to demonstrate is no right and brings zero results. And a few should not have to go out there fighting for everyone.

Mr Black can write a book but neither he nor i are in a position to get those people fired or get banks broken up.

It’s a huge demand and we need a lot of imagination but we really have to come up with a new idea – one we haven’t thought of before, a complete change of mind set.
The whole business of speakers shouting loudly on soap boxes is defunct.